Pelagic_ferries

Birds from the ferry: Winter, December to March

Japan's Pacific seaboard offers some of the best offshore birding in the north Pacific. Why not tag an extra couple of days onto your trip to Hokkaido and go there by ferry?

There are two options: you could catch an evening ferry from Oarai, just north of Tokyo, that gets you into Tomakomai in Hokkaido the following afternoon. Alternatively, if you include Nagoya as the city via which you travel back from Kagoshima or Okinawa, and board the evening ferry to Tomakomai (Hokkaido), which goes via Sendai, and arrives in Hokkaido one and a half days later. For albatross fans, this latter option is a must!

Pacific ferries are large and comfortable in Japan. Even in strong seas, the boats are large enough that sea sickness is rarely a problem, though if you are prone you should take the usual precautions before travelling. You can stay in private or shared cabins, there is a large public bath and shower facilities and a restaurant and souvenir shops on board.

Tips for sea watching from a ferry:

1. It is best to stand on the starboard side in the shelter of a buffer structure that breaks the headwind.

2. Alternatively, chose a place where the sunlight is not beaming directly at you.

3. Stand as close to the bow as you are allowed.

4. Search the sea with your binoculars in arcs sweeping from bow to stern.

5. Take some cleaning fluid and a lens wipe with you to clean your binocular lenses of salt spray.

6. Wrap up warmly. The wind and possible rain or sleet is cold, but in a warm down or gore-tex jacket and with gloves, a hat and a scarf, you can brave the elements and see the birds. In rainy weather, some sea watching is possible from inside the boat, looking out of the windows, but these tend to be obscured or warped by salt smears.

7. Start at sun-up. Seabirds are generally more active earlier and later in the day.

8. Sun-block and lip block are a good idea in sunny or windy conditions.

Ferry options:

1. Tokyo (Oarai) to Hokkaido (Tomakomai) ferry (leaves 1830, duration 18 hrs)

You will wake up along the Sendai coast of northern Honshu. Northern Fulmar is common offshore: a very dark grey phase is most common here, but there are also intermediate birds and a very few startling "double white" birds. Pomarine Skua are common, while Arctic and South Polar Skua should be seen in ones or twos. Among the fulmar flocks, you may see small numbers of Streaked Shearwater (scarce in winter up here). Short-tailed Shearwater and the larger, darker Flesh-footed Shearwater are possible in winter, but are scarce and difficult to tell apart from the dark fulmars at long range. Japanese and Long-billed Murrelet can be seen, but Ancient Murrelet are more usual, and Rhinocerous, Crested and Least Auklet, Common and Brunnich's Guillemot can also be seen. Look out for the rare Tufted and even rarer Horned Puffin. Auks are best seen when they are closer to the boat, but always seem to dive too soon! Small petrels like Tristram's, Leach's or Swinhoe's Storm Petrel are not impossible in winter, and Fork-tailed Storm Petrel, with its pale grey plumage, can be surprisingly difficult to pick out against the grey sea. The latter is scarce but regular in winter, especially closer to Hokkaido. Be on the look out for Red Phalarope in December, too.

Slaty-backed Gulls that trail the boat are joined by the odd Common, Glaucous-winged and Glaucous Gull the further north you get. Laysan Albatross are likely to be seen well and in some tens, while sightings of Black-footed and Short-tailed Albatross are less likely, but still possible. It is essential to rise at sunrise on this ferry to optimise your chances of seeing the latter two species, as they concentrate in waters off Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures at this time and only rarely venture further north.

2. Nagoya to Hokkaido (Tomakomai) ferry, leaves 2100 hrs, duration 32 hours

While this ferry seems like a marathon commitment, if you are keen to see the incredibly rare Short-tailed Albatross and rate sightings of this amazing species over any other seabird, this is the ferry for you.

At daybreak on the first morning you wake up off the Choshi, Chiba prefecture coast around 15km offshore from Inubo Cape, in fish-rich waters with many fishing boats. The volume of seabirds here is spectacular. Here are some of the species you can expect to see there:

Red-throated, Black-throated, Pacific and even White-billed Diver, Great Crested and Laysan (common), Black-footed (scarce) and Short-tailed Albatross (scarce; swimming birds look huge, like floating Dodo!), Streaked and the odd Flesh-footed or Short-tailed Shearwater, Northern Fulmar (scarce), Bonin Petrel (rare), Tristram's and Swinhoe's Storm Petrel, Japanese and Ancient Murrelet, Black and Asian White-winged Scoter, Black-tailed, Vega and Slaty-backed Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, and Pomarine (common) and Arctic (scarce) Skua.

Thereafter, you have a whole day birding waters further north, and you wake the following day in waters off south Hokkaido teaming with Northern Fulmar and auks (see above ferry notes for details).

Note: Cetacean species regularly seen from these ferries in winter (particularly further north) include Sei, Baird's Beaked, Bryde's and Killer Whale, Dall's Porpoise and Striped Dolphin.